(Washington, D.C., September 23, 2011) – Today, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) announced that she would be the first Republican member of Congress to cosponsor the Respect for Marriage Act (H.R. 1116), sponsored by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

"Representative
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's support for this important bill confirms that
equal respect for all marriages is a bipartisan, mainstream value,” said
Evan Wolfson,
founder and President of Freedom to Marry, the campaign to win marriage
nationwide. “Working with Representatives Ros-Lehtinen and Nadler, and
the Respect for Marriage Act's 125 co-sponsors, Freedom to Marry will
continue to make the case to Republican and Democratic members of
Congress that it's time to return the federal government to its proper
role of honoring all marriages legal in the states -- without a gay
exception."

Freedom to Marry’s bipartisan lobby team met with
Ros-Lehtinen’s office in July along with the Log Cabin Republicans. The
meeting was part of Freedom to Marry’s national campaign effort to make
the case on Capitol Hill, inside the Beltway, and throughout the
country that the freedom to marry is a mainstream American cause rather
than a partisan one. The campaign is geared toward growing public
support and helping to create an environment for Congress or the U.S.
Supreme Court to dismantle discrimination in marriage.

“Freedom to Marry has two goals in our GOP lobbying work – enlisting the first Republican cosponsors on the Respect for Marriage Act, and educating GOP members of Congress about why same-sex couples want to marry and the harms of DOMA,” said Freedom to Marry National Campaign Director Marc Solomon.
“Since we embarked on this effort several months ago, Freedom to
Marry’s bipartisan lobby team has met with more than a dozen GOP House
members. Each of them has told us that they'd never been engaged
directly on this matter before and they have welcomed the conversation."

To
grow support in DC, Freedom to Marry, in addition to direct
congressional visits, is hosting salons with DC opinion leaders
including GOP operatives and right-of-center thought-leaders to generate
conversations about the political and moral case for the freedom to marry.
Rep. Ros-Lehtinen will become the unprecedented 125th cosponsor on the
bill, surpassing last Congress’s total of 120 cosponsors.

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Freedom to Marry is the campaign to win marriage nationwide. We are pursuing our Roadmap to Victory by
working to win the freedom to marry in more states, grow the national
majority for marriage, and end federal marriage discrimination. We
partner with individuals and organizations across the country to end the
exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage and the protections,
responsibilities, and commitment that marriage brings.